Easy Art

Council clean-up is one of my favourite things in my neighbourhood.  There are just mountains of junk lining the streets (I mean, really mountains - taller than me!) and on the Saturday evening before collection, people wander the streets rifling through them.  Some people seem very organised, some not so much.

An old cat bed gets taken... cat bed mysteriously makes its way back to our front verge a day later...  And a broken cricket bat has appeared... Along with a kid's play set!

I think I literally gasped aloud when I saw three gigantic canvases in front of someone's house.  One was so much taller than me that I couldn't physically move it down the street, but the other two I tripped and teetered my way back with...

I was going to make art!

But then I noticed that the uhh... "canvas" part wasn't really canvas, it was a gauze-like fabric that of course paint seeps through and, well... this was not going to work!

But I still had giant frames and very big very blank walls...

So, I made fabric canvases instead.  Super easy to do, only takes about an hour and - ta da! - instant wall art!

If you aren't as lucky as me to score some free frames, they are actually not that difficult to make.

Once you have a frame...

... Line up your print so that it's straight otherwise it looks a bit wonky once you hang it even though it's not (I didn't pay enough attention to that with the first one as you can see...)

Then I used tape to hold it in place...

... Hot glued all the way down the back, keeping the fabric taut... (you go through a LOT of hot glue on a canvas this size!)
 

You can tack in some nails for reinforcement on the corners and sides or if you have a staple gun just skip the glue and use a bunch of staples!

Then add a string to the back for hanging using screws....

...et...

Voila!

Before and After: Laminate Bookcase Makeover

Quick before and after shots of my chipped, broken, ugly brown laminate... oh, the hideousness!

Look at it, sitting sadly, it was among the junk to be thrown to the council clean-up wolves...

My favourite pantone mug is the colour duck egg blue and it's... well, it's just so pretty!  And the inspiration for my new living room accents

I didn't take any photos of the process of revamping this bookcase - thankfully there's a second one!  When I get the time to do the next one (and the rain stops) I'll take some step-by-step pics. 

 Promise.

And, yes, just in case you're wondering over the bookcase contents, it's all mine.  Yep, I am a geek... history books, sci-fi shows, scrabble, comic books (or graphic novels to be more precise). 
And I can't even blame the other half - he doesn't read comic books! Gasp!